I will NEVER give a pound to aid charities BLASTS former-Africa field worker on Newsnight

I will NEVER give a pound to aid charities BLASTS former-Africa field worker on Newsnight

A FURIOUS and jaded former-aid worker who worked with the disgraced director in Haiti for Oxfam said in an explosive Newsnight interview that he will never “give a pound” to any aid organisation because the money goes to CEOs rather than field workers.

Roland van Hauwermeiren, the disgraced field director in Haiti, has been embroiled in a scandal involving allegations of sexual exploitation in Haiti with girls who may have been underage.

But it emerged yesterday that he was involved in similar conduct in Liberia years before in the early 2000’s.

Paul Hardcastle is a former-aid worker who was there in Liberia at the time of the allegations and with "Merlin" - which was a separate charity before it became part of "Save the Children" - at the same time as Roland van Hauwermeiren.

After recounting his experiences, Mr Hardcastle was asked if he would give money to aid charities. He blasted: “Between you and me, I would never give a pound and I have never given a pound.

BBC

Paul Hardcastle is a former-aid worker who was there in Liberia at the time of the allegations

Jeremy Paxman quits Newsnight after 25 years

Jeremy Paxman is set to quit affairs show Newsnight this coming summer after 25 years at the helm. Here's his career in pictures.

Jeremy quit the current affairs show Newsnight after 25 years at the helm

The Newsnight Presenter Evan Davis said: “And by the head office you don’t mean London, you mean the office in the capital of the country.”

But the former-aid worker replied: “I mean London and that’s why I’m talking about it. That’s why I’m passionate about explaining this situation so that aid organisations can get their house in order.”

When asked what he saw during his time with Merlin, he added: “I was seeing open corruption, the Merlin office was like a marketplace.”

He said there was a curfew of 11pm for security reasons, but this was not the case for the Merlin office who would use their cars to ferry them to nightclubs, pick up girls and then ferry them back.

The events happened nine years before Merlin became Save the Children. The charity says Mr van Hauwermeiren was never an employee of theirs.

Oxfam has seen a sharp rise in the number of sex abuse allegations made in the wake of the damning Haiti earthquake scandal of 2011, after the charity strengthened reporting procedures.

GETTY

Oxfam has seen a sharp rise in the number of sex abuse allegations made in the wake of the scandal

However, according to its latest annual report, some instances of sex abuse will still go undetected.

A section of the 2016/17 annual report about risks faced by the charity looked at safeguarding issues.

The report said: "Under-reporting is recognised within the sector as the major barrier to tackling sexual exploitation and abuse in delivering humanitarian and development programmes.

GETTY

A section of the annual report about risks faced by the charity looked at safeguarding issues

"By establishing a dedicated Safeguarding team we have raised the visibility of our Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse policy and reporting procedures.

"We believe that the overall increases in the number of allegations that we have seen in recent years show that we are improving awareness of this important issue and giving victims more confidence to report incidents."

Oxfam told Express.co.uk it expects to see even more reports in the future before the situation stabilises.